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replied. “Maggie explained to me that Jeannine, Bradley’s wife, only visited her in order to have her relay messages to her friend, Clarissa.”
    Nodding, Katie sat back in her chair. “Of course, the ‘doption girls,” she said. “They were always together, and I do recall Maggie telling Clarissa something the sad lady said. I had no idea that she was her birth mother.”
    “Now listen,” Clifford said. “Becca, Clarissa’s mother, has been through enough these past few years. She doesn’t need you rushing in and trying to take her daughter from her. She’s already had someone try and do that.”
    “What?” Bradley asked, nearly jumping out of his chair.
    Katie shrugged. “There was a man who called them insisting he was the birth father and he wanted Clarissa back. It happened just before Henry, Becca’s husband, died.”
    “Do you happen to know the name of the man who was trying to get Clarissa?” Ian asked.
    Katie shrugged. “No one really, he was a dentist...”
    “Do you really think this is relevant?” Clifford asked. “Don’t you think…”
    “Aye, the man who kidnapped and raped Bradley’s wife was a dentist,” Ian interrupted. “And as we were working to solve Jeannine’s murder, he kidnapped Mary and tried to do the same to her. Don’t you think Becca would be better off having someone to lean on, someone to help her?”
    Clifford stood up, paced away from the table and then turned back. “Are you telling me there really was a threat to that family? We all thought....”
    “Thought what?” Bradley asked.
    Clifford sighed. “We thought Becca had made it all up. That she didn’t want to acknowledge her husband died in a car accident, falling asleep at the wheel of his car...”
    “Wait, what did Becca say?” Mary asked.
    “She said that Henry, her husband, had taken the morning off to drive to Sycamore and meet with the dentist who had been calling them, demanding the custody of Clarissa,” Clifford said. “Henry knew that it was causing Becca a great deal of stress and...”
    “And she had been very sick for a long time,” Katie finished. “One of the things the dentist had said was he felt he could take care of Clarissa better than they could. Becca was sure he knew about her illness.”
    “So did Henry go to Sycamore?” Mary asked.
    Katie nodded. “Yes, and on the way home he must have fallen asleep at the wheel,” she explained. “He drove into the median and hit a cement pylon head-on. They said he was killed instantly.”
    “Did they check his system for drugs?” Bradley asked.
    “Hey, Henry was a good guy,” Clifford asserted. “He didn’t use drugs.”
    “No, no, not that way,” Mary explained. “Gary Copper, the dentist, was known for drugging people. He would often lace their drinks with drugs that would knock them out. He could have drugged Henry.”
    Katie clapped her hand over her mouth. “So she wasn’t imagining it,” she said. “He really could have been murdered.”
    “More than likely,” Ian said. “Did they do an autopsy?”
    Clifford shook his head. “We don’t know,” he said. “Becca disappeared with Clarissa the next day. Emptied out her checking account and drove away, leaving her house and belongings. She was sure that dentist, Gary Copper, was coming for them.”
    “When did all of this happen?” Mary asked.
    “Almost a year ago,” Katie replied, “late last spring.”
    “Do you have any idea where they might have gone?” Bradley asked. “Did she give you any clue?”
    “She said she was going back home, so she could get lost in the crowds,” Katie said. “She was from Chicago.”
    “Did she have any family there?” Bradley asked.
    “No, they just had each other,” Katie replied, shaking her head. “I remember her saying that. They just had each other.”

Chapter Eight
    Clarissa awoke to the sun shining through her bedroom window. She slowly stretched her arms up over her head, then pushed the blankets